


These Walls Of Time

by Jmas



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-06-21
Updated: 2003-06-21
Packaged: 2018-10-07 11:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10359252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jmas/pseuds/Jmas
Summary: SPOILERS: Meridian, Abyss, Changeling, Full Circle alternativeSUMMARY: Jack’s thoughts after the events of Full Circle





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

These Walls Of Time

All are architects of Fate,   
Working in these walls of Time.   
          The Builders  Longfellow

~~~

Gone.

Six years of memories seemed to fall away under the enormity of it all.

Abydos was gone, Skaara was gone, Daniel was gone. Every single thing that  
had stood testament to the lives and struggle of the Abydonian people was  
gone.

All but Jack.

Jack sighed into the cool night air, watching the trails of his breath as they swirled lightly around him before dissipating into the darkness, then sighted along his rooftop telescope. The Abydos and its triple suns remained, but knowing the planet still stood was poor consolation when weighed against the knowledge that the bright and spirited people who had given the distant hunk of rock its soul were gone.

Ascended.

Whatever.

The point remained. Jack would never see Skaara smile again, that crooked knowing grin that spoke so clearly of the sharp mind beneath the mass of wildly braided hair. He would never again feel the warmth of Kasuf's rough, solid affection. He'd never see Daniel's eyes soften when he contemplated the place or the people. Never again would he accompany Daniel to Sha're's gravesite, never sit on the dunes until all hours of the night letting Daniel talk about his own private Camelot of perfection that had been cut short so tragically.

Leaning back, Jack tried to take in the clear field of stars above him, seeking in that enormity an answer to the question that had haunted him since Skaara's ascended self had admitted no one knew where Daniel was. The very fact Anubis had destroyed Abydos told Jack that Daniel had been unable to stop the system lord. His bid for time and his hopeful belief he had the power to stop Anubis had been wrong.. Because Jack knew that nothing in the universe would have stopped Daniel from trying his damnedest to stop anyone and anything from harming Abydos or SG1.

Daniel had been wrong and somewhere, somehow, Daniel had paid the price.

The one damn time he least needed to be and Daniel had been wrong, and Jack couldn't find it in his heart to imagine gloating.even if he could.  As much as he tried to keep up hope, in his heart Jack feared that price had been a permanently fatal one.

The past year since Daniel had left them had been hard, damn hard. Even Jack had been shocked by just how much he'd missed Daniel's presence in his life, in their daily lives at the SGC, and in the small hours of the night when each had always been the one the other called when the shadows lingered to deeply or too long. So many times Jack had nearly spoken the other man's name on a mission, had nearly made it to the door of Daniel's lab before realizing Daniel didn't work inside there anymore, so nearly gotten out of his truck in front of Daniel's building intending to go inside and hang out, talk in their own unique language about the things that bothered them. There wasn't anyone Jack could talk to the way he could to Daniel. Never had been.

One day.

They'd only had one day of Daniel popping in and out of their lives, one day to remember how good they'd been together, to almost recapture the rhythm of what their lives had been like for five exceptional years. They'd taken for granted that things would always be the same, expected the foundation to hold no matter what.but in the last year they had all learned how wrong they'd been not to treasure each and every moment they were granted.

One lousy day.

Jack swore he'd never forget again, couldn't believe that after everything and everyone he'd lost in his life he'd forgotten at all.

He wanted to hope that somehow, some way Daniel had pulled just one more life out of his already over-extended supply. He wanted to, God how he wanted to, but if Anubis was as all powerful as everyone was saying then in all likelihood Daniel really was gone this time. The only glimmer of hope was the memory of Daniel saying Oma would stop him herself to keep her little glowy cult safe.and Jack knew Oma had been hanging out around Abydos.

Daniel had made the decision to cross that final line at Jack's urging.

Daniel hadn't been sure he could stop Anubis, a point Jack had worried over  
a lot even as they both knew they were dead empty on options. But if Daniel  
had died, really died this time, because Jack had pushed him into acting.

With a cough, Jack shook his head and gazed one more time into the night sky. There was no profit in 'ifs' and no amount of guilt for this current 'if' could ever supercede the guilt Jack had lived with for the past year for letting Daniel go in the first place. Jack wasn't quite sure how he knew but ever since Baal's prison he had been positive ascension wasn't Daniel's only option after Colona, just the option where he thought he would be able to do more good. And things had been so strained between all of them at that point there sure hadn't been much else to keep Daniel around. Jack would always wonder what would have happened if he'd just asked Daniel to stay, to try and beat the radiation with help from the Tok'ra or the Nox or whoever else they could find. No way to know now..

One thing Jack did know was that Daniel hadn't found a better way with Oma, had in fact found more strictures than even the US military could ever have placed on him. Sure Daniel had found creative ways to bypass the rules - just like he always had - but the worst that might have happened with SG1 was grounding or a pay dock. With the ascended it seemed to be more a matter of 'our way or the celestial highway'.and it remained to be seen just what that highway entailed. In a way Jack hoped it was more a matter of three strikes - helping him out of Baal's place, Teal'c's visitation, then Abydos made three - and you're out, and that somehow Daniel had just gotten his membership revoked.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack spotted a shooting star, tracking it as it sped away and disappeared over the horizon. Idly he wondered if it would skip away into space again or burn up in the atmosphere and or fall to Earth like the hunk of stone and ice it was. Sometimes a rock was just a rock no matter how pretty it looked when it was flying.

With a sigh, Jack packed away his equipment, noting he needed to restock the supply of beer he kept in the cooler under the bench. As he stood, Jack looked back in the direction of Abydos, thinking of all its people turned into what Daniel had been for the past year. The Abydonians were no more known for their docility than Daniel was. Jack couldn't help thinking that this time Oma might have taken on a harder task than even Daniel had been.

Smiling, Jack felt a rush of warmth, a true glimmer of hope for the first time since leaving Abydos. Daniel's tribe of devoted friends and extended family were in a position now to watch over him in a big way. If there was any way possible for them to help Daniel then Jack knew they would move heaven and earth, literally this time, to do it.

Daniel was famous across the known galaxy for beating the odds and suddenly Jack decided he needed to believe Daniel would do it again that this time.

Over all their time together and apart, Daniel had never given up on his friends, had bent a lot of corners to be there when they needed him most. How could they do any less for him?

No, Jack wasn't ready to give up on Daniel just yet. There was no way to know when or how, but Jack believed he'd see Daniel again somewhere on the other side of the 'gate..or maybe Daniel would find them. All Jack really knew or cared about was that he wanted his friend back, in whatever shape or form they could get him. He'd see Daniel again, maybe give him a lecture on fatal self-sacrifice, then hug the shit out of him and do whatever it took to convince him to stay.

Glancing back toward the horizon, Jack sighed again, feeling a lightness of spirit he hadn't felt since he and Daniel had spoken in the infirmary after Jack had returned from Baal's fortress.

Yeah, sometimes a rock was just a rock.but if a person was really lucky that rock could turn back into a shooting star and fly again.

***fin***

  


* * *

  


> Author's note: In my view, Daniel never forgot his friends or his Abydonian  
> family and sought to help them as much as he could as an Ascended, but  
> paraphrasing Jack, "This ascension business isn't all it's cracked up to  
> be".  Thanks to Tiv and Nancy for the superfast betas...

* * *

> May 31, 2003 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of  
> Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other  
> characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the  
> names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA  
> Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret  
> Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not  
> intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for  
> entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are  
> the sole property of the author.

* * *

$(document).scroll(function () {  
localStorage['page'] = document.URL;  
localStorage['scrollTop'] = $(document).scrollTop();  
});  
$(document).ready(function () {  
if (localStorage['page'] == document.URL) {  
$(document).scrollTop(localStorage['scrollTop']);  
}  
});  



End file.
